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36. SEED CATALOGUE AND GARDEN GUIDE.

[Image entitled "EARLY AMBER CANE."]

EARLY AMBER CANE.

[Image entitled "KAFFIR CORN."]

Dairy farmers say that the Early Amber Cane is the most valuable fodder plant in existence for their use. Notwithstanding its great adaptability as a food for livestock, it is only quite recently that the real value of sorghum (or sugar cane) has attracted general attention. Its great merit is now beginning to be appreciated. It is of the very best quality, being sweet, tender, nutritious and greedily eaten by cattle, horses and hogs. Dairymen find that the cows will give more and richer milk from its use and it is claimed that as high as ten tons of green fodder have been grown per acre. Sow 100 lbs. per acre for best results. It is a profitable crop also to grow for seed which is excellent for feeding poultry, and is very frequently ground and substituted for buckwheat flour. Price subject to market change. Per lb. 20c, 3 lbs. 50c. By freight, 10 lbs. 50c, 25 lbs. 85c, 100 lbs. $2.00, 500 lbs. or more @ $1.75.

KAFFIR CORN.
This is a most excellent fodder plant, yielding two crops of fodder during a season. It grows from five to six feet high, making a straight, upright growth. The stem or stalk bears numerous wide leaves. The stalks keep green and are brittle and juicy, making excellent fodder either green or dried. The seed crop is also heavy, sometimes yielding sixty bushels to the acre. Both grain and fodder are excellent. The stalk remains tender to full maturity of the seed. There is no failure about it as it possesses the quality that all the tribe possess, of going without rain without any loss of capacity to yield. The grain is extremely valuable for feeding to poultry and will make a flour that is like wheat. Cultivated the same as our common Indian corn, requiring five pounds of seed per acre. For fodder sow one-half to one bushel, either broadcast or in drills. Pkt. 5c, lb. 20c, 3 lbs. 50c. By freight, peck 40c, bushel (50 lbs.) $1.00, 2 bushel or more @ 90c.

JERUSALEM CORN.
Claimed by many practical growers to be an improvement on Kaffir corn as it is a surer crop in unfavorable seasons. Produces a large crop of fodder, which is of very good quality. Seed white and nearly flat. Yields a good grain crop also. Three or four pounds will plant an acre in drills, 40 to 50 lbs. broadcast. Pkt. 5c, lb. 25c, 3 lbs. 60c. By freight, peck 75c, bushel (50 lbs.) $3.00, 2 bushel or more @ $2.75.

TEOSINTE
A fodder plant grown largely in some parts of the country. Somewhat resembling corn in its general appearance, but the leaves are much longer and broader and the stalks contain sweeter sap. In its prefection [perfection] it produces a great number of shoots growing as much as 12 feet high; very thickly covered with leaves yielding such an abundance of foliage that one plant is considered sufficient to feed a pair of cattle for 24 hours. Eighty-five stalks have been grown from one seed, attaining a height of eleven feet. Horses and cattle eat it as freely as young sugar corn. Plant as soon as ground becomes warm at usual corn planting time, in hills, three to four feet apart each way, two seeds to the hill. We advise all those interested to give it at least a trial so as to be ready to plant large quantities hereafter. Teosinte is one of the heaviest yielding forage plants known, having yielded 50 tons of fodder to the acre. Large pkt. 5c, oz. 10c, 1/4 lb. 25c, lb. 80c, 3 lbs. (sufficient for one acre) $2.00 by mail prepaid.

[Image entitled, "TEOSINTE."]

GIANT SPURRY.
An excellent plant for pasture and it grows so well on poor, dry, sandy soil that it has been called "the clover of sandy land." Several years experimenting at the Michigan Agricultural College has proved that it is the only plant which can be grown on poor, sandy, dry soil that will surely return a paying yield. In another report he says: "The Spurry has shown wonderful productiveness. Its value as a manurial plant on light sands is pronounced. It seems to enrich the soil more rapidly than other plants. It is readily eaten by sheep and cattle. Sow broadcast the latter half of March or in April or May at the rate of 10 lbs. per acre if wanted for hay. It germinates quickly and in from six to eight weeks is ready to cut. Pkt. 5c, lb. 30c, 3 lbs. 75c, postpaid. By freight, 10 lbs. $1.25, 50 lbs. $4.50, 100 lbs. $8.75.

SERADELLA.
When traveling in Germany we found that Seradella was the most profitable of all fodder plants grown there and almost everybody grows it for hay. It is specially adapted to light, poor or sandy soil, being fully equal to red clover in nutritive qualities and yields a much larger crop. It is one of the best drouth-resisting plants known and does well on high land as well as low. Cattle are very fond of it as hay, green fodder or for pasturing. It makes a dense, thick, rapid growth, covering the ground completely and choking out all weeds. It is not a perennial, but can be cut twice and will produce good pasture balance of year. Sow early in spring alone or with wheat or other grain. Pkt. 5c, lb. 30c, 3 lbs. 80c, postpaid. By freight 10 lbs. or more @ 10c. per lb. Bushel of 45 lbs. (will sow 3 acres) $3.75.

AUSTRALIAN SALT BUSH.
A most valuable plant for soils containing alkali and for all regions subject to prolonged drought. It is highly desirable to furnish forage during the hot, dry summer months, in our western and southern states. Not hardy in the north. The plant needs some little moisture to start it into growth, but when once started it will make a strong growth during the hottest and driest weather. The plant is of spreading habit, branching freely and making a thick mat of stems and foliage 12 to 18 inches in depth over entire surface of the soil. Pkt. 5c, oz. 15c, ¼ lb. 40c, 1 lb. $1.25.

SEED FLAX.
It will pay you to sow nice, pure high grade flax seed. It is one of the most profitable crops, especially on new land. Price subject to market changes. Per pk. 65c, bu. $1.85, 10 bu. or more @ $1.75.

DWARF ESSEX RAPE.
The [This?] is beyond all question the most popular and profitable of all forage plants, and everywhere it is giving the best satisfaction. It it [is] easily grown anywhere and stands unsurpassed as a forage plant for hogs, cattle or sheep. They eat it greedily and seem to prefer it to any other pasture during the summer and till late in the fall or early winter. It can be sown early in the season to provide early pasture for sheep and swine, or sow in small grain a week or so before cutting to provide pasture after harvest, or sow on the stubble, but it is usually sown in June, July or August with corn or potatoes or on well prepared land alone for summer and fall pasture. Makes a wonderfully productive pasture for sheep, hogs and cattle, and they gain flesh so rapidly that they soon "weigh like lead." While it is the ideal food for sheep still it is of equal value for hogs and cattle as they are very fond of it. It is extremely cheap and very prolific, having yielded twenty tons of fodder per acre. In the east it is usually sown in drills, two or three pounds per acre, and cultivated, but in western states it is almost invariably sown broadcast, four to five pounds per acre and it grows so rapidly that weeds are quickly smothered. The United States department of agriculture claims that it adds greatly to the fertility of the soil for the following grain crop. A Nebraska farmer says that he sowed only 3 lbs. per acre on a four and one-half acre field, and five weeks after sowing he turned eighty head of hogs and forty pigs into the field and they pastured there constantly until October. The plants grew so rapidly that at no time could he tell where the hogs had been twenty feet away from the gate. Per pkt. 5c, lb. 30c, 3 lbs. 75c, postpaid; by frt. 5 lbs. 50c, 10 lbs. 75c, 25 lbs. $1.50, 100 lbs. $5.00. Write for circular on growing rape.

MAMMOTH RUSSIAN SUNFLOWER.
Largest sunflower. This is one of the best paying crops that can be raised. Seeds are the best of food for poultry and is much cheaper to raise than corn. Stalks make good fire wood. Large pkt. 5c, lb. 20c, 3 lbs. 55c; by freight, 10 lbs. 75c, bu. of 25 lbs. $1.50.

[image] DWARF ESSEX RAPE

FODDER AND FORAGE PLANTS ARE A PROFITABLE PART OF THE FARM PRODUCTS.